5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Quit Your Job To Become A Blogger

If you have read my blog posts previously you must already know that I am not a fan of quitting your job to work online full time, at least not immediately.

With the number of internet marketers who promise the world overnight, it is easy to get caught up in the hype to pursue a dream that has been falsified to begin with the way it’s presented.

While you can certainly make money online, and a lot of time, the process takes time to develop into a steady income stream you can rely on before calling it quits with The Man.

While each of our earning requirements or thresholds to quit may be different, one thing is for certain, and that’s the earnings have to be stable.

I started side gigging while fully employed years ago, and I did not initially quit my career until my side gigs were generating more than I was making at work. I am not suggesting this applies to you as well, but I wanted to ensure that income from my side gigs were certain, stable and steady enough for me to rely on.

Aside from triumphing over the uncertainty involved in the process, there are several other compelling reasons why you shouldn’t quit your full time job to pursue making money online immediately.

1. Today It Takes Longer To Do Well On The Internet

Saturation online has made it more difficult today to earn money online relative to just a few years ago. Thanks to the hype discussed earlier, everyone wants a piece of the profit pie online. A steady income from employment helps ease anxiety, as well as provides for the day-to-day basic needs throughout the duration it takes to establish yourself in the online space.

2. Discipline

Most people don’t have the discipline it takes to achieve their goals in the time frame initially targeted. Things come up, laziness sets in and burn out happens. You may have saved for three months estimating you’d be making enough money online to replace your salary. But what if it takes four or five months?

3. Learn And Experiment For Free

There is a steep learning curve when initially embarking on the online journey. Why would you want to give up a steady paycheck just to experiment and make mistakes? You can easily do that during evenings and weekends. Take your spare time and invest in your education. With a steady cash flow coming in, you will also be able to purchase the tools and services available to make your work easy. Prepare yourself for your next life while living in the current one. There is no rush is there?

4. Confidence And Peace Of Mind

Making money online is not for the desperate. When you have a steady job, you have a stable flow of cash coming in that you can rely on. Without that certainty, your anxiety level will be naturally higher and potentially cause you to eventually quit and give up when results don’t materialize according to your expectations.

5. You Can’t Control Search Engines

There are certain things that are just plain beyond our control, such as search engine behavior. There is no saying how long it takes engines to get to know you, start trusting you and then start sending traffic your way. Similarly, there are other things in the online realm beyond our control, so what sense does it make to plan on concrete results within a concrete timeline when not all variables are predictable?

The internet by its very nature is ever evolving and dynamic. Though you can estimate, it is difficult, if not impossible, to predict cause and effect relationships with precise results and timeline.

There are many who have succeeded online, and more have failed. Because of the volatility and uncertainty factors that inherently increase the risk exposure of attempting to make money online, quitting your full time job to work on your business is not the route I recommend.

Remember, life is not short. Life is long, very long, so take it easy, enjoy the journey and transition only when the time is right (if you must that is).

Readers: Did you quit your full time job to pursue a passion full time? Why did or didn’t you do it and how have the results panned out? What do you recommend to our readers?

77 Comments

I guess online ventures are very similar to offline ventures. In the offline world, if one needs to start a business, they have to invest heavily (with little or no profit) initially. Perhaps for a few years.

But then, after being in the pond for long, one automatically learns to swim. In the offline world, it becomes difficult to quit the business because of the investments made in them. But in the online world, its easy to quit. Thats the biggest challenge any entrepreneur needs to handle – Deciding whether to stay on or quit. Both can have dramatic consequences, but we do learn a lot in the process.

Raj – some very good distinctions around what compels one to stick around offline vs online. The turnover on the blogosphere is way too high. I am not an advocate of quitting your bread and butter to pursue something with so many variables beyond your control. Many would argue that blogging in itself is not a business.

I find that sucess both on and off line is down to perserverance, hard work and good time management techniques. in addition I find it important to work to a daily print of progressing my seo methods, updating website information and most important giving value to the reader or customer,

Hi Sunil – sadly, I am actually one of those people who called it quits with my daytime job. Luckily I am making some buck online with three of my site – however all three of them are still, yet and quite, low ranking and visited.
I think – it’s as you say, the reason why everyone is going for blogging and making online with his or her own blog or site, is due in part (or for the most part) because some people make as if it’s so super easy to make money online.

Today, there are more than 200 Million bloggers (I don’t know whether that is insane or extremely madly insane) while only about 200K of them (200,000) would be actually making some money there.

So , today its really about giving it your all and go full time on it – because otherwise you’re NOT going to be able to compete.

That’s an interesting rational and approach J. You make some very good points. Now what if despite giving it your all one doesn’t break into the 200k who make profits? What do they fall back on? Can’t you also give it your all for the limited time you are working on it on the side? Sure you cannot work on it as much, but you can ensure the work you are putting in is quality (“your all”). no?

Why would you need to concern yourself with what competition there is out there? If you ask me, there are only about 8 Top Blogs on the Internet that are worth their bacon, all the others are looking at these 8 top bloggers and simply rewriting or recycling if you like, the same information… Its like the TV, you hear the main news, then the programs that all follow, are giving out the same information but from a slightly different angle, we are all suffering information overload.

You are right sunil, Right now it’s not easy to earn a steady income from blogging, as there are a lots of factor controlling internet and we are not in a position to control all of them. we can earn something, but that does not ensure us that we will be able to earn the same or higher amount in the coming months.

Well said my friend. The lesson continues to be diversity in income streams is necessary to ensure a somewhat predictable / reliable stream (at least to meet our basic needs) while mitigating exposure to complete loss of income.

Hey Sunlil,
Great advice here in this post. I would say to most that a slow transition into blogging full time is a better approach even though there are many probloggers out there who still retain a full time job.

Slow transition is definitely preferable Justin. The problem I have with blogging as a full time business is that what is the underlying business? Can it be here one day and gone the other? What are the skills one is developing that can be offered elsewhere beyond the blog? Is is sustainable over time compared to let’s say a lawyer who actively practices law over the years?

Having a full time job is definitely gives you assurance and peace of mind, but does it give you the freedom you want and the pleasure of running your own business.
Full time jobs are good, but before you make the move i would say get your business to a level where if you were to leave, you have a good foundation, even if the Search Engines were to go against you, or you had couple of bad months, you should be able to ride the storm.

Great thought Wasim. It is exactly what you said about freedom and flexibility that I made the decision to give up a lucrative six figure profession. I tell you what though – it’s hard to sustain an online business model if search engines turn against you unless you have a solid gob of subscribership

you are right! i quitted my job for full time online business. My earning come from adsense. But oddly my profit decrese to a half although my unique hit and CTR are same. I think i must found some more stable techniques. Taking ads from directly advertisers intead of CPC systems (like adsense) should be more stable as we see at this blog (entrepreneurs-journey).

Jhone, thank you for your feedback. There is certainly more predictability with private ads (fixed income). Even that comes and goes however, and is mainly predicated on being able to sustain a certain traffic / readership level. After all, that is what the advertisers are paying for right?

You can’t build your dream on a part-time basis. If you’ve a passionate sense of purpose, then you should give it all what you’ve got.

Otherwise, you’ll suffer from an identity crisis. From 9 to 5 you’re a person of no value, while from 5 to 9 you feel that you own the world by doing something that truly matters.

I’ve been trying to earn consistent income from my online business for almost 6 years without much success — only spikes of traffic and sales every now and then.

Then, I decided that my dream is big enough for being just a side gig.

When you reach a stage where you’ve mastered the basics of your field of passion, and built a solid foundation that has the potential to shine and bloom, then there is no reason whatsoever not to follow your heart — FULL TIME.

The thought-to-be stable paycheck makes you lazy, fades your desire and keeps you full. While making an impact and leaving your mark requires being HUNGRY!

One of the best decisions I’ve ever made is quitting my job. Taking risks is a key success factor. Nothing is stable, nothing is guaranteed, and life is too short to waste it at a job you hate.

What is the worst thing that could happen? Getting in trouble? Aren’t you already in trouble giving up your heart and soul for a humiliating paycheck.

Money is important, but it is meaningless if you’re getting it by doing meaningless work. Money loves passionate people.

You might face hard times, but this is only to test your commitment to your dream.

** You must deserve it, before you manifest it.

If you want to leave a legacy, then your dream can never be a side gig.

You make some very good and valid points Mohamed. Unfortunately not everyone is in a situation to breakaway so easily. I have written extensively about why people stick it out at their jobs despite hating it, unfortunately the lack of discipline gets them into this vicious circle that keeps them cuffed to that paycheck. I would argue that for these people, money, regardless of how earned, is meaningful to them and their families. I agree with you that those who absolutely hate their jobs or are in a position where they feel they have no value from 9 to 5 are in a bigger predicament.

Truth is, when you start living this entrepreneurial lifestyle the world looks at you like your the crazy one.

I tell people the same thing you say.. Don’t quit your job. What happened with me was they fired me. I had started doing real estate and was blogging for a few months. It seems like the job starts getting in the way of your success then you start thinking like “I’m ready to quit”.

I was eventually fired because I just wasn’t feeling the job anymore.. my bosses hated be and I just didn’t want to deal with the negativity. Plus I had just read rich dad poor dad…

After they fired me I realized I now had access to the best thing we as humans have access to… Time. Time to go as hard as I want on different projects. No more job getting in the way…

Don’t quit your job but once you start doing something else you’ll get the feeling that your job is a burden holding you down.. that’s when you come to a decision where eithr your job has to go so you can focus or you slave away, killing yourself trying to live 2 lives…

Excellent message Dennis. For those who transition slowly into something they truly are passionate about, there may come a day when the realization strikes and thus they must decide which side of the fence they want to stand on. For some however, this may never happen as not everyone is unhappy at their 9 to 5 jobs.

You’re absolutely right! It’s really not advisable to quit your day job not until you’re earning a stable income from your blogs. Starters might get the impression that being an internet marketer is easy. Well, sorry to burst your bubble but it’s not. There are a lot of things you need to consider and generating income online doesn’t happen overnight. It’s better to stay with your day job first and in the future, you might quit your day job as long as your income will compensate your daily needs.

Excellent advice Sunil. The internet today is indeed ever evolving and unpredictable that we can’t risk depending on it totally. That’s the difference of a day job and an online business. With a stable day job, we can be sure money is consistent but working online does not ensure us of stable money even with stable online presence.

Good comparison John, and you are absolutely correct. When establishing online ventures, diversity continues to be key. For example, building an email list can mitigate exposure from strange search engine behavior, providing one can convert their list to paying customers. But even with that said, diversity in income streams (job and a side gig for example) seem to resonate best with me.

Many people believe that they will become rich working only a few minutes per day just by blogging so when they get some positive results they start believing that there is no reason to continue their full time job, the reality is that you cannot become rich just from blogging (most top bloggers have many other businesses and they use their blogs to promote them) and if you rely only on one source of income you risk too much only on one basket.

So for me the best is to continue your day job until you have multiple online sources of income and not only one, in that way if something happens to one of your income sources you will have the others so you will have the time and money to build more income sources

Thats perfect reasons which you have mentioned and I want to give more pressure on last one i.e. “You Can’t Control Search Engines” likewise there are many things which is out of our control so its depends on us how we handle such situations.

Hi Sunil, what you say is very true. It is quite unwise to give up a regular job until you are guaranteed a steady stream of revenue from your online undertakings. Even though I started in this a while back, I had planned to continue my regular job but I was laid off and unemployed for a while. Now I work at a part-time job which helps when during the months when I have a lean earning from my online sources. I long for the day when I can be completely dependent on my online revenues to get by so I can focus on it one hundred percent.

i both agree and disagree…
for sure creating its business online is risky and there is no garantee that you will earn money on a regular basis
but if you are so bored in your job, i would advise you to quit it and create your own business online
just be prepared financially to earn much less than forecasted
money might come… or not…
that’s why passion must be here

Money doesn’t come the minute you start your side business, that is the entire premise of this article. Getting a head start (hence side gigging) is what ensures your business is making some amount of money in the event you are not working full time.

I think a good time to say goodbye to a day job is when an hour spent online equals more money than an hour spent at work. The reason I believe this is, if you can spend an hour at work and generate a fixed income, that income can be used to outsource to another worker who may end up doing 3 hours of work for you. This is better than you spending an hour yourself doing it. This is just my opinion. I was unfortunate to have been laid off from my work, so I went ahead and made the decision to just pursue my online career full time.

It’s now that I realize I could have gotten more work done while working a full time job because of the “outsourcing” funds I would have had.

Excellent demonstration of arbitrage at work. If you can make $65 an hour working, why not outsource at $20 an hour to build a business? Works for me – yet another reason why a lucrative corporate career isn’t so bad after all providing you do not hate your job.

I didn’t specifically quit to become a blogger per say, though I am working at and learning about the ways people are making a living online, and seeing where I can fit in, for I love the idea.

There really is, as you said, a steep learning curve, coupled with changes that occur, which is intimidating, and yet a bit exciting.

Nice write up by the way, it gives a nice realistic open minded view, sort of in the grey area. I see myself not an over night success, but once I have persevered over the course of time of staying persistent and learning, I sense it is very possible.

I agree with both Mohamed and Sunil. I quit my career at the end of last year and devoted my efforts full time to my online business. I didn’t make that much money from products, but rather from Coaching. Then however I made a few wrong steps and BANG, I feel through and had to get out of a messy situation. so in that case a job could’ve been nice.However, as Mohamed said, it’s impossible to generate enough income without having a laser sharp focus on your business. And spending most of your energy on a job that you don’t like drains your from the valuable energy that you need to put in your business. Now my case was different becuase my contract expired last year and I would have had to actually LOOK for a new job if I wanted to. To me it’s the same as building a business. So for now I am for the quitting option. Taking risks and having a laser sharp focus.

Ivan, for many a website and a blog is an avenue that markets / supports the underlying business, in your case coaching. While the web property doesn’t in itself rake in huge dough, it does bring in leads which can be monetized by offering your services to them.

Good article. I’m just starting a site and it’s so hard to do this. It’s something I think, like anything, just takes a huge amount of time before you carve yourself any kind of decent site that people want to come to as a resource of information.

I started Yaros course 2 weeks ago and realise that this is going to take time to see some results, you know what, already I have people subscribing to my weekly newsletter, already I have people commenting on my blog, you know what, I’m only on Lesson 4, for money, I have contacted ( phoned up) a wholsale supplier who dropships physical products, I list these on eBay and Amazon and already I’m getting orders now literally every day now, and I only set these up about a week ago, its amazing what you can do just by having the belief, I love this business, I really do

Thats a bit late telling me that Yaro, why you should never quit your job lol I quit my job to work this business full-time, I quit because I’m serious about what I’m doing, I can never ever understand why people are in their jobs, they hate every minute of it, but they rush off to work because they are to frightened of getting the sack, you know what, I have been sacked from my full-time jobs at least 3 times now, and have walked out of full-time jobs 3 times. Believe in yourself, believe that you will succeed and you will see success… with out any doubts!!!! its a great life waking up in the morning thinking, now lets get to work, or I will sack myself lol

A lot of people seem to think that it is easy to do what a lot of do but they fail to realize just how hard we work and the great amount of time that goes into what we do. family for one thinks that what I do is effortless and doesn’t take time. It is a constant battle with time when you run your own blog and business.

do you feel that you are putting in more time now than you were at a job assuming you had one? what are you using as a point of reference when you speak about “It is a constant battle with time when you run your own blog and business”??? highly interested in your thoughts.

I was fascinated by the world of IM and making money online when I first introduced to it over a year ago. However, I am still yet to make any money from it. I feel my progress has been slow for a number of reasons, but the main one being that I haven’t put as much work in as I should. I was a victim of redundancy after working for almost 20 years (not in the same job). I saw this as a great opportunity to do a life long dream of having my own business and being self employed. I do have my own online business, but is no way near paying enough for me to live off, and I am talking about just the standard bills. However, I have learnt so much along the way. The tools you need, the things you have to do and as our e-commerce consultant said, the time you have to put in. However, I have learned about, SEO, back linking, how search engines and not to get drawn in to all the things that are being offered, but to stay focussed and not try to do 101 things all in one go. I thought I could use my redundancy to get by, but that has run out pretty fast after 9 months. I am now in a position where I am having to find another job cover my living expenses. I do believe, I will get there, but wish I knew then what I know now and may be things would be different. I don’t have any regrets though. I think one think I really have learned out of it all is that you have to be persistent and keep trying no matter how many times you get knocked back or things don’t go as you planned or how others say it will be. It takes great determination, but I do believe if you keep at it, one day you will get it right. I can’t tell you how many times I have wanted to give up, but I really do want it bad enough that I will keep on trying and know that I will master it. Thanks for the article. Really great post.

Hi Sunil,
From experience, it is not easy to make money online especially blogging as it takes time to grow your readership. A lot of newbies have been suckered by online sales pitches that internet is a good way to make easy money, which in reality is not. Your advice of not quitting one’s job before your online income reaches your regular job income is the best advice for budding internet marketers.

I totally agree with everything stated here. It took me a few years of trial and error before I was able to sustain an income online. Also, not putting all you eggs in one basket is something to live by online. Try a lot of different things and never get frustrated. If you feel as if you are wasting your time on something then you can have faith that you are learning what not to do, however you will be rewarded with what works.

One of the best things about trying to make money online, however, is that you don’t have to quit your day job. It’s very possible to work your online gig on the side while continuing “working your day job” until you have reached a minimum level of success. Plus, the barrier to entry is so low…

I am new to blogging but it would seem to me the number of people who subscribe to your site, is the life blood to any blog. From this you can attract advertisement, build up a following and become a leader in your chosen sector of blogging.

I’ve been reading many of the posts on this site and I’m impressed by the way you tell it like it is. So many articles lack the feeling of what it’s like to actual take on blogging or working online as a career. Thanks for your insights and real world experience.

Becoming a blogger is not enough to make enough money to quit our job. Nowadays we have to create a lot more alternative source of income online to actually make enough money to survive. It will be better to hold on to the full time job while working on the online earning resources. It is going to take years before actually create multiple steady income online.

Tell me about it. In a perfect world, we’d all be able to do this for a living but unfortunately the income part makes things tough. Doesn’t mean one can’t dream though and who knows, one day that dream may come true.

Of course I didn’t quit my job immediately after deciding to work in the IM sector. My job was already related to this, so I stuck around to learn as much information as I needed to make it alone as well. In the mean time I set off several projects and worked on them in my free time. Now I have my own employees. They also work from their homes. This would cause some problems, but I use an employee monitor software so the anxiety around not seeing what the people you are paying for are doing is gone. For them this is a steady income, and I reached a level where I feel the security too. But I would never have quit before I knew it was safe – this is common sense.

With reference to’ 5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Quit Your Job To Become A Blogger’, I kind of disagree, its horses for courses,in other words, it depends on the individual,I used to work with a guy who decided to do a plumbing course, he studied part time along side his full-time job, he was that focused on becoming a plumber, he started to study in the staff canteen.

He kept on saying, “This plumbing course is my way out of this company, I have always dreamed of doing something with my life, and love tinkering with DIY jobs at home, and always wanted to be able to do my own plumbing, including the plumbing for others”, I admired his determination and focus.

I said to him a few months later,”Hows the plumbing going,he said fine, I have passed the course, and as soon as I get busier, I’m leaving to work my plumbing business full-time, now this was 5 years ago and hes still there, working a 12 hour night shift, if he really wanted his dream you would think that he would of pulled out all the stops to make it happen.

I told my wife that I’m working for myself online as from now, I promptly gave my notice in, it was great sacking my boss, and I have never looked back, I have worked my full-time business 2 years now, and love every minute of it…

I find that sucess both on and off line is down to perserverance, hard work and good time management techniques. in addition I find it important to work to a daily print of progressing my seo methods, updating website information and most important giving value to the reader or customer,

I found that when you get into the mind set that you will sleep when you die it is easier to be more successful online. through out the day I am either reading a blog and leaving comments, or finding new directories to submit my site into, or other sites… its long and the pay off is not big quit yet. But I love doing it and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Its about timing.Everything has a risk,but you should take calculated risks.You should know when to quit your job.Run your online business part-time while you are at your job.When you beginning making more than what you earn at your job consistently for at least 6 months,you can then quit your day job.Also make sure that you have at least 6 months savings before you quit your job.Generating passive income while you sleep is really the nicest feeling that you can ever have.

i agree with the article, just look at a recent giant search engine, who constantly changes the algorithm… this could knock anyone’s income from $ to 0 overnight, unless your target other sources of traffic, or have your own product… still rather risky…

Nice post Sunil,
I have been in to blogging for over 3 years but I have not quit my day job. I don’t think I’ll be ready to do that for another year or maybe more. This only time and situation will dictate.